To enter, write a haiku that is a message to Mars. Haikus, of course, are three-line poems with a specific syllable count -- five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second, and five again in the third. Entries must be submitted by July 1.

The public will have two weeks in July to vote on the haikus, and the three favorites will be sent to Mars. The consolation prize for those who don't win the contest is pretty good: Everyone who enters will have his or her name recorded onto a DVD that goes to Mars.

The MAVEN mission is designed to explore Mars' atmosphere. It's a NASA project with the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics acting as principal investigator -- and running the poetry contest.

Comedians publishing humorous autobiographies -- quirky retellings of the boozy nights on the road, the broken hearts and broken (sitcom) dreams -- seems a rite of passage these days, along with the requisite podcast, Twitter account and digital comedy special.

Some people wear their emotions -- like a love of books -- on their sleeves. And with literary T-shirts they can do that literally. Some feature books' covers, others text, and others pay tribute to beloved authors.

James Franco contains multitudes. He has been nominated for an Oscar, stars in goofy movies like the upcoming celebrities-face-the-apocalypse comedy "This is the End," has twice played a gay poet in a period biopic, gone to graduate school, gotten a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, published...

I was almost sorry to see the developers of the Clean Reader app — which would have allowed squeamish or morally didactic readers to remove profanity from books — take “immediate action to remove all books from our catalogue” last week, in response to authors...

In Quartzsite, Ariz., at the sprawling Reader's Oasis bookshop, readers can purchase their books from a man known as the naked bookseller. Also known as Paul Winer or Sweet Pie, the naked bookseller has been selling books for 24 years.

It's been a good few months for Emily St. John Mandel. Her novel "Station Eleven" was a finalist for the National Book Award, and landed on the PEN/Faulkner shortlist and the longlist of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Even George R.R. Martin is a fan. And now: Here comes the Rooster.

It's a banner day for fans of Lisbeth Salander: The girl with the dragon tattoo is returning in "The Girl in the Spider's Web." The book will hit shelves Sept. 1; its cover was released today by Knopf.